Vulpes qiuzhudingi

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Vulpes qiuzhudingi
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Vulpes
Species:
V. qiuzhudingi
Binomial name
Vulpes qiuzhudingi
(Wang et al., 2014) [1]
Synonyms

Alopex qiuzhudingi

Vulpes qiuzhudingi is an extinct species of fox that lived during the Neogene period in the Himalayas. [2] It was primarily carnivorous. [3] The fossils, dating from the Pliocene epoch between 5.08 and 3.60 million years ago, were discovered in the Zanda Basin and Kunlun Mountains of Tibet. [4] [5] It was named after Qiu Zhuding, a paleontologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. [3] The species is believed to be the ancestor of Vulpes lagopus, the modern Arctic fox, which would support the "Out of Tibet" theory: namely, that a number of current Arctic species trace their ancestry to species that originally inhabited the Tibetan Plateau. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arctic fox</span> Species of fox

The Arctic fox, also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small species of fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in cold environments, and is best known for its thick, warm fur that is also used as camouflage. It has a large and very fluffy tail. In the wild, most individuals do not live past their first year but some exceptional ones survive up to 11 years. Its body length ranges from 46 to 68 cm, with a generally rounded body shape to minimize the escape of body heat.

<i>Vulpes</i> Genus of the sub-family Caninae

Vulpes is a genus of the sub-family Caninae. The members of this genus are colloquially referred to as true foxes, meaning they form a proper clade. The word "fox" occurs in the common names of all species of the genus, but also appears in the common names of other canid species. True foxes are distinguished from members of the genus Canis, such as domesticated dogs, wolves, jackals and coyotes, by their smaller size (5–11 kg), longer, bushier tail, and flatter skull. They have black, triangular markings between their eyes and nose, and the tip of their tail is often a different color from the rest of their pelt. The typical lifespan for this genus is between two and four years, but can reach up to a decade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tibetan Plateau</span> Plateau in Central, South and East Asia

The Tibetan Plateau, also known as Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and Qing–Zang Plateau, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South, and East Asia covering most of the Tibet Autonomous Region, most of Qinghai, western half of Sichuan, Southern Gansu provinces in Western China, southern Xinjiang, Bhutan, the Indian regions of Ladakh and Lahaul and Spiti as well as Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan, northwestern Nepal, eastern Tajikistan and southern Kyrgyzstan. It stretches approximately 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) north to south and 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) east to west. It is the world's highest and largest plateau above sea level, with an area of 2,500,000 square kilometres (970,000 sq mi). With an average elevation exceeding 4,500 metres (14,800 ft) and being surrounded by imposing mountain ranges that harbor the world's two highest summits, Mount Everest and K2, the Tibetan Plateau is often referred to as "the Roof of the World".

<i>Coelodonta</i> Extinct genus of rhinoceros

Coelodonta is an extinct genus of Eurasian rhinocerotoids from 3.7 million years to 14,000 years ago, in the Pliocene and the Pleistocene epochs. It is best known from the type species, the woolly rhinoceros, which ranged throughout northern Eurasia during the Pleistocene. The earliest known species, Coelodonta thibetana, lived in Tibet during the Pliocene, with the genus spreading to the rest of Eurasia during the Pleistocene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tibetan fox</span> Species of true fox

The Tibetan fox, also known as the Tibetan sand fox, is a species of true fox endemic to the high Tibetan Plateau, Ladakh plateau, Nepal, China, Sikkim, and Bhutan, up to elevations of about 5,300 m (17,400 ft). It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List, on account of its widespread range in the Tibetan Plateau's steppes and semi-deserts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmopolitan distribution</span> Distribution of an organism across all or most of the world

In biogeography, a cosmopolitan distribution is the range of a taxon that extends across most or all of the surface of the Earth, in appropriate habitats; most cosmopolitan species are known to be highly adaptable to a range of climatic and environmental conditions, though this is not always so. Killer whales (orcas) are among the most well-known cosmopolitan species on the planet, as they maintain several different resident and transient (migratory) populations in every major oceanic body on Earth, from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica and every coastal and open-water region in-between. Such a taxon is said to have a cosmopolitan distribution, or exhibit cosmopolitanism, as a species; another example, the rock dove, in addition to having been bred domestically for centuries, now occurs in most urban areas around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulpini</span> Tribe of carnivores, most called fox

Vulpini is a taxonomic rank which represents the fox-like tribe of the subfamily Caninae, and is sister to the dog-like tribe Canini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caninae</span> Subfamily of carnivores

Caninae ,) is the only living subfamily within Canidae, alongside the extinct Borophaginae and Hesperocyoninae. They first appeared in North America, during the Oligocene around 35 million years ago, subsequently spreading to Asia and elsewhere in the Old World at the end of the Miocene, some 7 million to 8 million years ago.

<i>Miocyon</i> Extinct genus of carnivores

Miocyon is an extinct genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in North America from the early to late Eocene.

Prototocyon is an extinct genus of small omnivorous canid that lived during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. It is closely related to the living bat-eared fox (Otocyon).

<i>Coelodonta thibetana</i> Extinct species of mammal

Coelodonta thibetana, the Tibetan woolly rhinoceros, is an extinct species of the genus Coelodonta native to western Himalayas that lived during the middle Pliocene epoch. C. thibetana is known from the holotype IVPP V15908, a partially complete skull including incomplete lower jaw preserved with full dentition. It was first named by Tao Deng, Xiaoming Wang, Mikael Fortelius, Qiang Li, Yang Wang, Zhijie J. Tseng, Gary T. Takeuchi, Joel E. Saylor, Laura K. Säilä and Guangpu Xie in 2011.

Deng Tao is a Chinese palaeontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has made important fossil discoveries on Cenozoic mammals. He is a professor of vertebrate palaeontology, deputy director of the Academic Committee, and deputy director of Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates at IVPP.

<i>Panthera blytheae</i> Extinct species of mammal

Panthera blytheae is an extinct species of felid which lived during the Early Pliocene of Tibet. It has been initially suggested as the earliest known species of the genus Panthera, though its taxonomic placement has been disputed by other researchers who suggest that it likely belongs to a different genus.

This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2014, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.

The Dove Spring Formation is a geologic formation in the western Mojave Desert of California. It preserves fossils dating back to the Miocene epoch of the Neogene period.

Protovis himalayensis is a prehistoric species of sheep found in latest Miocene to Late Pliocene-aged strata of Himalayan Tibet in 2016.

Kunlun Volcanic Group, also known as Ashikule Volcanic Field, is a volcanic field in northwestern Tibet. Eight other volcanic fields are also in the area. The field is within a basin that also contains three lakes.

<i>Aphanius crassicaudus</i> Extinct species of fish

Aphanius crassicaudus is an extinct species of fish in the family Aphaniidae. It lived in the Late Miocene in brackish and hypersaline lagoons along the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Fossils are known from Greece, Italy, and Spain.

<i>Didymoconus</i> Extinct genus of mammal

Didymoconus is an extinct genus of mammal that lived during the early Oligocene epoch. It was endemic to Asia, and its fossils have been found in Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. It is the type genus of the Didymoconidae, a family of eutherian mammals with uncertain taxonomic affinities.

Qurliqnoria is an extinct genus of caprine bovid that inhabited Eurasia during the Neogene period.

References

  1. Wang, Xiaoming; Tseng, Zhijie Jack; Li, Qiang; Takeuchi, Gary T.; Xie, Guangpu (11 June 2014). "From 'third pole' to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox". Proceedings of the Royal Society B . 281 (1787). Royal Society: 20140893. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0893. PMC   4071559 . PMID   24920475.
  2. Wang, Xiaoming (2015). "Cenozoic vertebrate evolution and paleoenvironment in Tibetan Plateau: Progress and prospects". Gondwana Research. 4 (27): 1335–1354. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2014.10.014.
  3. 1 2 Qiu, Jane (11 June 2014). "Origins of Arctic fox traced back to Tibet". Nature . doi:10.1038/nature.2014.15398. S2CID   130724421 . Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  4. Li, Qiang; Xie, Guangpu; Takeuchi, Gary T.; Deng, Tao; Tseng, Zhijie J.; Grohé, Camille; Wang, Xiaoming (1 October 2014). "Vertebrate fossils on the roof of the world: Biostratigraphy and geochronology of high-elevation Kunlun Pass Basin, northern Tibetan Plateau, and basin history as related to the Kunlun strike-slip fault". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology . 411: 46–55. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.06.029 . Retrieved 11 September 2024 via Elsevier Science Direct.
  5. Christine Dell'Amore (10 June 2014). "An extinct species of "very carnivorous" fox with supersharp teeth once roamed the frigid Tibetan Plateau, a new study says". National Geographic . Archived from the original on June 14, 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  6. ""Out of Tibet" hypothesis: Cradle of evolution for cold-adapted mammals is in Tibet". National Science Foundation . June 11, 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.